This seems to be a pretty typical post here but I'd like to hear from people who have recently gone through the admissions process about how they view my chances at different law schools.

Background: Graduated from a Big Ten University (middle of the pack not U-Mich), 3.2 Gpa, 174 LSAT, 3 years out of school, completed Peace Corps service and have a decently high proficiency in Russian, currently work in media doing political advertising sales.

I am interested in going to school either back in the midwest or staying out east. West coast/southern schools not really in the picture.

Does being proficient in a critical language like Russian help out your admission chances? I ask this because I am also proficient in Russian (will be taking 4th year Russian at UT) and will be going to study abroad over the summer. Also, I would say you have good chances at most T14 schools barring YSH... I would apply, though. Who knows if your softs might help you gain access to a better school.

Oscar85 wrote:Does being proficient in a critical language like Russian help out your admission chances?

Not really.

As in,

Median LSAT > 1 point below median + speaks foreign languages

Ah, I see... but, can it attest to the rigor of your schedule? For example, I was required to take four semesters of foreign languages. Being Mexican-American, I am proficient in Spanish, and could have placed out of the foreign language requirement. Instead, I decided to enroll in Russian and do the intensive program (2 semesters in 1)... I guess the best I could do with that is write into my personal statement, right? And thanks for the response!! If you know anything about stanford, would you mind helping me out with my thread on the front page? Thanks!!

Oscar85 wrote:Does being proficient in a critical language like Russian help out your admission chances? I ask this because I am also proficient in Russian (will be taking 4th year Russian at UT) and will be going to study abroad over the summer. Also, I would say you have good chances at most T14 schools barring YSH... I would apply, though. Who knows if your softs might help you gain access to a better school.

Proficiency in a language is just a soft like any other soft. It might marginally add to the diversity of your application, but we're talking about a pretty expansive definition of 'marginally.' It won't actually impact whether you get into a school. If anything, knowing a second language is more helpful come OCI, but I'm not sure that knowing Russian has much value.

Also, OP does not have 'good chances' at Columbia, Chicago, Berkeley, or Duke. I would agree, however, that it's difficult to know how big a bump the softs will give. Peace Corps is generally thought to be in the small category of softs that does provide a tangible advantage.

OP, not sure what your interests are or how much debt you're willing to take on, but if you're simply hoping to get into the best school possible I would think an ED to NYU makes a lot of sense. That LSAT + Peace Corps looks like a very competitive candidate there.

If you want to straight up maximize your options ED to your choice of NYU and Penn and you have a pretty solid shot. UChi and Columbia will both WL you regardless of ED but you have probably a 10-20% chance of getting into either off of it if you greatly prefer them over NYU or P.

Oscar85 wrote:Ah, I see... but, can it attest to the rigor of your schedule? For example, I was required to take four semesters of foreign languages. Being Mexican-American, I am proficient in Spanish, and could have placed out of the foreign language requirement. Instead, I decided to enroll in Russian and do the intensive program (2 semesters in 1)... I guess the best I could do with that is write into my personal statement, right? And thanks for the response!! If you know anything about stanford, would you mind helping me out with my thread on the front page? Thanks!!

Are you a URM? If so, this significantly changes what ppl are telling you.

Instead, I decided to enroll in Russian and do the intensive program (2 semesters in 1)... I guess the best I could do with that is write into my personal statement, right?

Not worth mentioning in the statement, IMO; it's a waste of critical space. Even if you were fluent in Russian, which you are not, it would only be worth listing as a one-liner in the Other Info box ("Fluent in Russian -- reading and writing"). It would only be worth writing about if you used your language in your Peace Corps work where it is much more meaningful than just completing your undergrad college's foreign language requirement+elective.

Language majors are a dime-a-dozen, and quite frankly, language majors tend to have extremely high grades; many upper division courses are curved on an A-.

Oscar85 wrote:Ah, I see... but, can it attest to the rigor of your schedule? For example, I was required to take four semesters of foreign languages. Being Mexican-American, I am proficient in Spanish, and could have placed out of the foreign language requirement. Instead, I decided to enroll in Russian and do the intensive program (2 semesters in 1)... I guess the best I could do with that is write into my personal statement, right? And thanks for the response!! If you know anything about stanford, would you mind helping me out with my thread on the front page? Thanks!!

Are you a URM? If so, this significantly changes what ppl are telling you.

Well yeah, he will get the MA bump... but there is no bump for speaking Russian. Fluency in a few languages is a fairly typical soft.

Last edited by Nova on Tue Jul 03, 2012 12:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Oscar85 wrote:Ah, I see... but, can it attest to the rigor of your schedule? For example, I was required to take four semesters of foreign languages. Being Mexican-American, I am proficient in Spanish, and could have placed out of the foreign language requirement. Instead, I decided to enroll in Russian and do the intensive program (2 semesters in 1)... I guess the best I could do with that is write into my personal statement, right? And thanks for the response!! If you know anything about stanford, would you mind helping me out with my thread on the front page? Thanks!!

Are you a URM? If so, this significantly changes what ppl are telling you.

Yeah, I was surprised that others missed that after he said it. I would think the OP has a good shot at CCN and down if they are a URM.

Oscar85 wrote:Ah, I see... but, can it attest to the rigor of your schedule? For example, I was required to take four semesters of foreign languages. Being Mexican-American, I am proficient in Spanish, and could have placed out of the foreign language requirement. Instead, I decided to enroll in Russian and do the intensive program (2 semesters in 1)... I guess the best I could do with that is write into my personal statement, right? And thanks for the response!! If you know anything about stanford, would you mind helping me out with my thread on the front page? Thanks!!

Are you a URM? If so, this significantly changes what ppl are telling you.

Yeah, I was surprised that others missed that after he said it. I would think the OP has a good shot at CCN and down if they are a URM.